The Corner Store

A few days ago, Over-the-Rhine blogger The Walking Green mentioned some of the benefits of living in a walkable neighborhood, and also her Walk Score, which is 92/100. Mine is actually 98/100! Do you believe that? I actually do walk to pretty much everything I want and need, so my score doesn’t entirely surprise me.

However, the Walk Score is a bit misleading, as some of the nearest establishments are not nearly as relevant or useful as it may suggest, and some others no longer exist. In fact, I had some thoughts about the Walk Score earlier this year.

This particular corner store isn’t quite a close to my house as Bang’s Mkt. was, but it’s pretty damn close. If only it were open!

I’ve been spoiled by larger cities in which I’ve lived, where I’ve had corner store options. My options here include the Vine St. Kroger, Garfield Market, Avril Bleh, Sunshine Fine Foods, Silverglade’s, Walgreen’s, and three CVS stores. How many of those are actual corner stores? How many are on my corner, or even a block away?

When you factor in the “closed on Sundays” and “closed on Mondays” [WTF, Avril Bleh?], lack of evening hours, and the limited availability of certain mundane items in some of these stores, my quick trip to the so-called corner store can easily turn into a highly organized five-stop tour, executed with a bit of advance planning. It can be done; I do it. Life could be simpler, though.

Who’s going to reopen this corner store? Do I have to do it?

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